The efficiency and speed with which financial processes are performed often have substantial impact on a company's operating costs and profits. Customers may also be drawn to financial companies that are able to perform transactions more expediently than others. For example, the speed with which checks are deposited and reflected in a customer's account may affect a customer's satisfaction with the financial institution. More efficient processing of financial transactions may further prevent financial irregularities in the bank's accounting ledger and/or transaction log.
One area in which financial institutions may encounter operational delays is duplicate detection and processing. With the advent of electronic banking and electronic processing of financial transactions, duplicate detection is often needed to prevent double processing of the same financial document (e.g., negotiable instrument) or transaction. However, current electronic duplicate detection systems may be over inclusive and flag non-duplicate documents as duplicate items. For example, rebate checks having the same check number and deposited by multiple customers of the same banking institution may be flagged as a duplicate document or item. In another example, a returned check may also be erroneously labeled as a duplicate item based on the same micr line information and/or check number. As such, false-positives may create significant delays in the processing of various transactions.
Additionally, current financial transactions are generally processed locally at each banking site (e.g., local bank branch, automated teller machine (ATM)). Thus, when the local banking site closes, the processing of financial transactions is also generally shut down for the day. This produces significant delays in the completion of transactions that are not entered in time to be processed the same day. Further, since financial documents are processed locally, duplicates submitted at different bank branches or sites often go undetected.